President Obama: “We’re Building an Iron Man”

President Barack Obama spoke at a Manufacturing Innovation event on Tuesday and announced two new public-private manufacturing innovation institutes – in Chicago and Detroit - with a surprising revelation: "I'm here to announce that we're building Iron Man."

The Manufacturing Innovation event is designed to bridge the gap between "applied research and product development" with the goal of combining the resources of companies, universities and federal agencies to co-invest in key technology areas. And, the first innovation Obama announced would make Tony Stark jealous.

"This has been a secret project we've been working on for a long time," Obama told attendees.

Of course, Obama was just joking around, laughing with the assembled crowd and adding, "Not really. Well...maybe. It's classified. I'm gonna blast off in a second."

While Obama was having some fun (and perhaps revealing his favorite superhero), there have been some significant developments on a real life Iron Man suit. As we reported last year, the U.S. Army is teaming up with universities, laboratories and the tech industry (sound familiar?) on the creation of smart suits called TALOS (Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit) to be worn by soldiers in the field.

The TALOS suit TALOS provides superhuman strength from attachable hydraulic arm and leg features that also increase speed anbd durability. The suit even has its own version of JARVIS, an operating system, which provides soldiers with 360-degree visuals, a night-vision and the ability track and monitor body temperatures, heart rate and hydration levels.

All pretty impressive stuff. So, while Obama was joking, maybe he wasn't joking that much after all.